Assistant Principal of Holy Family Primary School, Leah Taylor, has a deep understanding and appreciation for the world of science. Leah's passion stems from her father, who is the scientific genius behind Australian ice-cream topping 'Ice Magic'.

Leah was exposed to the iterative process of scientific inquiry and investigation at a young age as she watched her father perfect Ice Magic in the lab.

“He was constantly having to try it, to improve on it, and to use that knowledge he continued to learn right through his working life to create a product that I think is loved by a Nation,” she said.

Leah has shared this life experience with many classes to help introduce a deeper understanding of chemistry, physics and biology and encouraging students to inquire. 

Teachers at Holy Family are learning alongside students in a vertical peer support program from Kindergarten to Year 6 where the school leaders run STEM problem solving sessions with their peers under teacher supervision. 

“As much as I love science, and as much as I’ve been involved in it for a very long time, I’m still learning, and I love that I get the opportunity to learn from my students,” said Mrs Taylor. 

“If you want children to be passionate learners, you have to have passionate teachers who love learning and it has to go all the way from the Principal.”

Leah instils in students an appreciation for investigating the world around them, to build on awe and wonder rather than fear. 

 “Teachers have to have a deep understanding of knowing when to introduce content and how they’re going to do that within a framework of student interest,” she said.

For Science Week Holy Family Primary School participated in the Sony Science Teachers Association of Tokyo (SSTA) program, providing students with the opportunity to be taught a science lesson from a Japanese teacher who then also observed a lesson.

Leah said that Japan is moving towards an inquiry based framework in the same way we are in Australia, where we let students identify and investigate questions.

“They’re one of the big innovator countries that we can learn from. It was nice to share their ideas,” she said.

“We work with students and build that knowledge and deep understanding through passing on these skills while still maintaining student interest and giving students a little bit of autonomy in what they learn.”

“Teaching science is absolutely critical – students need to be scientifically literate.”